The Short Story
Rob has a new job! He'll be working for Amnis, a company that sells a scientific data analysis machine. He'll be a Field Scientist / Analyst for the Midwest region. It starts November 5th and will pay him more money than he's currently making with all 4 of his jobs combined. Hurray!
If you'd like the longer story, read on. It's kind of a neat story.
The Back Story
A few months ago Rob's boss, Edith, who is a lovely woman, told Rob that she didn't have money for him beginning some time mid-2013. She didn't want to let him go without him having another job, so she asked him to start looking around. This wasn't unexpected. When Rob started work with Edith in 2010, he knew that she had guaranteed money for him for 3 years, but not necessarily longer.
So Rob started looking. We still wanted to stay in Cincinnati, so the plan was to look around here, then extend the search if something local didn't pan out. There are three faculty positions opening for local universities that he was looking at, one of them at NKU. That's still a long shot. The other two are only for one, possibly two years. So not ideal. And the position at Mount St. Joseph (that Rob was the runner-up for 2 years ago) hasn't materialized the way they said it would.
So local seemed unlikely. Our fall-back plan was for Rob to step up his adjuncting and for me to work full-time as an interpreter starting next fall. Not the best, but workable.
The Real Story
Seemingly unconnected to anything else job-seeking-related, Rob attended a scientific conference at the end of September. His co-worker and friend mentioned that it was a good place to network. Rob kind of ho-hummed the idea. On Thursday night, when he arrived, we talked on the phone. The conversation went something like this:
Tamra: When someone offers you a job tomorrow, you should say yes.
Rob: Yeah, okay, whatever.
Tamra: No. Really. Someone's going to offer you a job tomorrow, and you should say yes.
Every once in a long while, there are things that I know without knowing how. It wasn't IF but WHEN. Thankfully it doesn't happen often, because it makes me sound like a crazy person.
On Friday night Rob called and said, "So, how serious are we about looking into industry?" He explained that he'd met with some people from a particular company and they were looking for someone to fill a particular spot in that company. I was like, "Rob, that's your job!" (Okay, it wasn't a job offer, but it was close, no? Gotta admit my premonition was spookily accurate.)
Rob basically spent all weekend following them around, asking them questions about what they do and what their schedules are like and what the company is like. The company reps spent time watching Rob give a presentation and being generally impressed by him. They told him to send in his resume as soon as possible. Preferably the minute he got home.
It Gets Going
On Monday, Oct. 1st, he sent in his resume and cover letter. Within an hour he got a phone call to set up a phone interview for Tuesday, Oct. 2nd.
On Wednesday, Oct. 3rd, he got another phone call to set up a phone interview in 45 minutes from then. The guy said, "Normally things don't happen this fast, but you've really caused a stir around here. How do you know these guys?"
On Thursday, Oct. 4th, he got a phone call setting up an in-person interview at company head quarters in Seattle.
The interview was Thursday the 11th. It went amazingly well. The more Rob learned about the company and the people who work there, the happier he was to potentially work for them. And the more they learned about Rob, the more positive things they had to say about him. They did everything except formally offer him the job.
At the end of last week, after what seemed like a very long week, Rob got a phone call saying that they were going to offer him the job. It was nice of them to tell us before the weekend so we could have our lives back. This week he got the formal offer, negotiated a little, signed the final offer, and things are off and running!
About the Job and The Lord's Plan
We feel extremely grateful for all of this. Rob and I have been praying for years that a job would be prepared for him. We both assumed that would mean a job in academia, as a professor. But it just so happens that all of his skill sets, that he's been working on for years, or even decades, align perfectly with this job. Check it out:
- Rob has been teaching on the side for 4 years, to eventually impress a university. He had been told this is what he needed to do. Pay his dues. Guess who wasn't impressed with Rob's teaching experience? A single university. Guess who WAS impressed? Amnis.
- Rob has been using this machine for years during his post-doc work. He's won awards with this machine and his ability to use it to analyze his data. People in the lab come to him to help them with it. And it just so happens that the people who make this machine are looking for an expert who uses this highly specialized equipment? What are the chances?
- It's a bonus that Rob speaks German. The company that owns Amnis, called Millipore, or maybe it's Merck that owns Millipore... Merck owns Millipore owns Amnis. Either way, one of those two is based in Germany. They're looking to expand there. How many American companies think it's a bonus for their employees to speak German? Honestly, Rob has been so bummed over the years that his German has defiantly not come in handy.
And then there are other things that are just perfect for us:
- You have to be a people person. Check.
- You have to be okay with travel. This is a little scarier for Rob than it is for me. My dad traveled when I was a kid, and he still does, so it seems normal and natural for me. It'll be a lifestyle change, for sure, but one we can handle and one I think we'll end up really liking.
- Rob gets to work from home when he's not traveling. SCORE!
- We don't have to move. We can live anywhere in the Midwest area that's close enough to an airport to make traveling convenient. As an added bonus, there's an Amnis machine at Children's, and Rob already has a ton of connections there.
We feel so blessed. Heavenly Father is good to us.
So when you see Rob next, tell him congrats. We're both really excited about this change and what it will mean for our family and our lives and our future!
Showing posts with label career. Show all posts
Showing posts with label career. Show all posts
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Friday, January 28, 2011
Today's Update
From Rob
Since it's all said and done, I guess I'll write about it. Back in the Fall Rob applied for a dream job - a tenure-track professorship at a small liberal arts college about 20 minutes from our house. The biology department there is a close-knit group of delightful people, and we were both really hopeful about Rob's chances.
In December he got a phone interview (which ended up being a face-to-face interview, which was fine by Rob), and then in early January he got the Real interview, which was 6 hours worth of presenting, meeting people, etc. He met with the Dean of the department, the President of the college, and the entire department. It was pretty intense, but again everyone was really nice.
The next week Rob heard back. There were 2 positions open, and Rob was in the top 3. After much debate, they chose the other 2. So, happy 3rd place to Rob!
No crying for us, though. Strangely, we weren't sad about it at all. I mean, it was disappointing, and it would have been a great job. But after Rob went and interviewed, all the anxiety went away. He felt really good about the interview, he felt like he showed them who he is and what he's about, and there's really not much else you can ask for in an interview process. On top of that, Rob has a great job right now, things are stable, his boss is a goddess, and we're happy.
Also, it was Rob's birthday on Wednesday. And he shaved off his beard. Those were unrelated events.
From Tamra
As of 2 days ago, I officially own the van sitting in my driveway. So I guess I can't say it's my parents' van any more. It's a 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan. It's served my parents well for all this time, and the odometer proves it: 377,000 miles. Did you even know that number existed?! It's awesome. I want to walk around saying to people, "Guess how many miles my van has on it."
We intend to use it lightly. As I see it, the van's put in good time and deserves a rest period before the end comes. We're hoping that it lasts a year or two, and I think that's reasonable if we don't stress it out. It's really nice to be able to go to the store during the day, to the museum with Tank, etc. Hurray!
And I would insert another picture of it, but it's still covered in snow, and do you really need a picture of our van? No. You'll live.
From Miciah
She's still being Miciah. She reads and reads and reads, till all hours of the night. She's still doing piano and likes it when she's not whining about practicing. In general, though, her whining has gotten much better. She's a delightful 9-year-old and I have a good time with her. It's amazing how not yelling at someone every day really changes your relationship with that person. The tension that's always been there between us is less and less every day. We'll sit next to each other and just make each other laugh. It's lovely!
Miciah is still acing school with little effort. She was accepted into her school's gifted program for language arts starting next year. I think it means they'll actually try to challenge her, which is good. When I explained to her what the program was supposed to be like, to see if she wanted to do it, she said, "Language arts is so easy." Yes, sweetie, that's why they want to put you in an advanced class. Miciah also gets lots of comments from her teachers about how nice and respectful she is, which is something we expect from her. She's a great kid.
From Elijah
Elijah is crazy hyper most nights, and I'm counting down the days till good weather. He gets worse as he gets more tired, and by 8:00 it's almost intolerable. One night I told Tank and Elijah they had to go to bed. Tank said, "How come Miciah gets to stay up?" "Because Miciah doesn't get crazy when she's tired." Tank thought about that and then said, "But she gets whiny." Good point.
Elijah is a softie. We're only 1 movie away from finishing the Star Wars "saga," and he's still sad for Darth Vader. All through movies 4 and 5, while Vader was doing horrible things to people, Elijah was saying things like, "But he's still good, right?" No! He's not! Rob did tell him that there is some sort of happy ending for him, just so Elijah wouldn't freak out.
Elijah is also the kid who reminds us to read scriptures at night. If I suggest (because I'm lazy sometimes) that we just skip it, Elijah gets upset. He loves to read the verses, and he's getting pretty good. Scriptures are great, cause there are lots of big words to challenge new readers, but also lots of repetition to give them confidence. If they can't read anything else, they can always get "and it came to pass."
And a good Elijah story. Rob was gone and I was putting the kids to bed, but I was also really, really grumpy for no reason. So I told Elijah to go to bed and I'd be in to tuck him in "in a second." I needed some time to sit on the couch and just breathe before I went in there. You know, enjoy the silence for a few moments. As Elijah was walking to his room, and I was reassuring him that I'd be in "in a second," he said, "Does a second mean a minute to a parent?" Hmm. Apparently the answer to that is yes.
From Teancom
Tank's accomplishment for the week: Playing at the museum for 3 hours! We've had a museum membership for the majority of the time we've lived here. It's a great place for the kids, and they've loved it. Except for Tank in the last few months. We'd go and he'd throw a fit the entire time (I think I wrote about it). SO frustrating. So we decided that when the pass came up for renewal, we wouldn't do it. What's the point, if he's just going to throw fits the whole time?
On Saturday we took all 3 of the kids, and I was surprised by the fact that all 3 of them were really into it. I kinda thought that Miciah and Elijah were getting too old for the Children's Museum. Apparently not. So I told them that I'd give it a couple tries with Tank, see if he liked it better now. And he played happily. No fits, even when we left.
While we were there he asked me to crawl through the Woods area with him. There are tunnels and ladders and a slide. It's pretty great. I told him that I'd play for 10 minutes and then he needed to play on his own. He thought that was acceptable. So I took my coat, my purse, and my library copy of The Autobiography of Mark Twain. The tome probably weighs like 75 pounds. It was comical, I noted, as I shimmied back and forth through a climbing tunnel, pushing my book ahead of my body at every turn. Rob laughed at me when I told him the story and said, "Why didn't you just leave it on the bench?" What?! Leave a book behind? "What if someone took it?" Rob just looked at me. "Right. Cause it's a hot seller right now." Fine.
From Cleo
Our cat is about to be my brother's cat. Keith asked if he could take her up to his apartment in Dayton, and I happily agreed. Cleo still hasn't forgiven us for getting a dog. She stays in the basement all day long and therefore gets zero attention. Miciah was pretty sad when we told her, cause of all of us, she likes Cleo the best. Miciah's room is downstairs, and she cuddles with Cleo every night. Miciah cried for a while, but I explained that Cleo really would be happier at Keith's place. Miciah agreed, but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it. I suggested that she make something to help her remember Cleo. She took pictures and did a scrapbook page, and she's been happier ever since.
From Kui
Love my dog. We're still working with her, teaching her who's boss. We'd had her a few months before I felt like she really "got it" that we're in charge. She's barking less and behaving better in general, so we're making progress with her. She's a very compliant dog, and she was super well trained before we even got her. We're just fine tuning it. ... Love how cuddly she is. Love, love my dog.
And that's all of us. Happy almost February!
Since it's all said and done, I guess I'll write about it. Back in the Fall Rob applied for a dream job - a tenure-track professorship at a small liberal arts college about 20 minutes from our house. The biology department there is a close-knit group of delightful people, and we were both really hopeful about Rob's chances.
In December he got a phone interview (which ended up being a face-to-face interview, which was fine by Rob), and then in early January he got the Real interview, which was 6 hours worth of presenting, meeting people, etc. He met with the Dean of the department, the President of the college, and the entire department. It was pretty intense, but again everyone was really nice.
The next week Rob heard back. There were 2 positions open, and Rob was in the top 3. After much debate, they chose the other 2. So, happy 3rd place to Rob!
No crying for us, though. Strangely, we weren't sad about it at all. I mean, it was disappointing, and it would have been a great job. But after Rob went and interviewed, all the anxiety went away. He felt really good about the interview, he felt like he showed them who he is and what he's about, and there's really not much else you can ask for in an interview process. On top of that, Rob has a great job right now, things are stable, his boss is a goddess, and we're happy.
Also, it was Rob's birthday on Wednesday. And he shaved off his beard. Those were unrelated events.
From Tamra
As of 2 days ago, I officially own the van sitting in my driveway. So I guess I can't say it's my parents' van any more. It's a 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan. It's served my parents well for all this time, and the odometer proves it: 377,000 miles. Did you even know that number existed?! It's awesome. I want to walk around saying to people, "Guess how many miles my van has on it."
We intend to use it lightly. As I see it, the van's put in good time and deserves a rest period before the end comes. We're hoping that it lasts a year or two, and I think that's reasonable if we don't stress it out. It's really nice to be able to go to the store during the day, to the museum with Tank, etc. Hurray!
And I would insert another picture of it, but it's still covered in snow, and do you really need a picture of our van? No. You'll live.
From Miciah
She's still being Miciah. She reads and reads and reads, till all hours of the night. She's still doing piano and likes it when she's not whining about practicing. In general, though, her whining has gotten much better. She's a delightful 9-year-old and I have a good time with her. It's amazing how not yelling at someone every day really changes your relationship with that person. The tension that's always been there between us is less and less every day. We'll sit next to each other and just make each other laugh. It's lovely!
Miciah is still acing school with little effort. She was accepted into her school's gifted program for language arts starting next year. I think it means they'll actually try to challenge her, which is good. When I explained to her what the program was supposed to be like, to see if she wanted to do it, she said, "Language arts is so easy." Yes, sweetie, that's why they want to put you in an advanced class. Miciah also gets lots of comments from her teachers about how nice and respectful she is, which is something we expect from her. She's a great kid.
From Elijah
Elijah is crazy hyper most nights, and I'm counting down the days till good weather. He gets worse as he gets more tired, and by 8:00 it's almost intolerable. One night I told Tank and Elijah they had to go to bed. Tank said, "How come Miciah gets to stay up?" "Because Miciah doesn't get crazy when she's tired." Tank thought about that and then said, "But she gets whiny." Good point.
Elijah is a softie. We're only 1 movie away from finishing the Star Wars "saga," and he's still sad for Darth Vader. All through movies 4 and 5, while Vader was doing horrible things to people, Elijah was saying things like, "But he's still good, right?" No! He's not! Rob did tell him that there is some sort of happy ending for him, just so Elijah wouldn't freak out.
Elijah is also the kid who reminds us to read scriptures at night. If I suggest (because I'm lazy sometimes) that we just skip it, Elijah gets upset. He loves to read the verses, and he's getting pretty good. Scriptures are great, cause there are lots of big words to challenge new readers, but also lots of repetition to give them confidence. If they can't read anything else, they can always get "and it came to pass."
And a good Elijah story. Rob was gone and I was putting the kids to bed, but I was also really, really grumpy for no reason. So I told Elijah to go to bed and I'd be in to tuck him in "in a second." I needed some time to sit on the couch and just breathe before I went in there. You know, enjoy the silence for a few moments. As Elijah was walking to his room, and I was reassuring him that I'd be in "in a second," he said, "Does a second mean a minute to a parent?" Hmm. Apparently the answer to that is yes.
From Teancom
Tank's accomplishment for the week: Playing at the museum for 3 hours! We've had a museum membership for the majority of the time we've lived here. It's a great place for the kids, and they've loved it. Except for Tank in the last few months. We'd go and he'd throw a fit the entire time (I think I wrote about it). SO frustrating. So we decided that when the pass came up for renewal, we wouldn't do it. What's the point, if he's just going to throw fits the whole time?
On Saturday we took all 3 of the kids, and I was surprised by the fact that all 3 of them were really into it. I kinda thought that Miciah and Elijah were getting too old for the Children's Museum. Apparently not. So I told them that I'd give it a couple tries with Tank, see if he liked it better now. And he played happily. No fits, even when we left.
While we were there he asked me to crawl through the Woods area with him. There are tunnels and ladders and a slide. It's pretty great. I told him that I'd play for 10 minutes and then he needed to play on his own. He thought that was acceptable. So I took my coat, my purse, and my library copy of The Autobiography of Mark Twain. The tome probably weighs like 75 pounds. It was comical, I noted, as I shimmied back and forth through a climbing tunnel, pushing my book ahead of my body at every turn. Rob laughed at me when I told him the story and said, "Why didn't you just leave it on the bench?" What?! Leave a book behind? "What if someone took it?" Rob just looked at me. "Right. Cause it's a hot seller right now." Fine.
From Cleo
Our cat is about to be my brother's cat. Keith asked if he could take her up to his apartment in Dayton, and I happily agreed. Cleo still hasn't forgiven us for getting a dog. She stays in the basement all day long and therefore gets zero attention. Miciah was pretty sad when we told her, cause of all of us, she likes Cleo the best. Miciah's room is downstairs, and she cuddles with Cleo every night. Miciah cried for a while, but I explained that Cleo really would be happier at Keith's place. Miciah agreed, but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it. I suggested that she make something to help her remember Cleo. She took pictures and did a scrapbook page, and she's been happier ever since.
From Kui
Love my dog. We're still working with her, teaching her who's boss. We'd had her a few months before I felt like she really "got it" that we're in charge. She's barking less and behaving better in general, so we're making progress with her. She's a very compliant dog, and she was super well trained before we even got her. We're just fine tuning it. ... Love how cuddly she is. Love, love my dog.
And that's all of us. Happy almost February!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Why February is Already Better
So, if you didn't read my post about January, all you really need to know is that January was a waste of calendar space. The kids were sick for the first few weeks, I was sick for the next few weeks, and then the month was over. No fun.
But this is why February is already better, listed in ascending order of importance:
1. I purchased this really cool US puzzle for the kids. I'd been wanting one, and was thinking about making one for my first-ever difficult woodworking project. "Extremely difficult, you say? Ha! Who cares?!" Instead, though, I found this Melissa & Doug one for $10 and couldn't pass it up.
Next, I think I will purchase this world map puzzle for them:
2. Our family got to spend some time with Rob's famous Aunt Lisa. It was hilarious to watch Lisa get adored and tracked down (seriously: TRACKED DOWN) in Middle-of-Nowhere, Ohio. Pictures, and holding kids, and signing magazines. ... Sometimes I remind myself that this is all about scrapbooking and it's too weird. I told Lisa that her life is bizarre and then I thought to myself, again, that I wouldn't want to be a celebrity of any type.
If you are unsure who Lisa is, you probably aren't a scrapbooker. But you can check out her website here. And yes, Lisa truly is as charming and likable in real life as she seems on TV / in her blog.
3. The Ohio tax return is in the bank! It's not much, but we'll take it. By the end of February, the Fed. return should be in there, too, and that's more money to pay off debt faster. I told Rob that I can't think of a single thing I'd like to do with the money that's more important to me than paying off our debt faster. We have committed to being debt-free by 2013, and I think we can do it. We're already making huge strides. Hurrah! (And we are maintaining a decent standard of living at the same time. No, I don't think we deprive ourselves of "good" things. It's a good financial place to be, actually, and I wouldn't mind maintaining this standard of living for the rest of our lives.)
4. Rob has a job for Fall! ... This last week has been craziness. Last Friday he went and talked to someone about a possible 2nd post-doc. She was very interested in Rob. This was meant to be a slow affair. I mean, this isn't until July or August, so there was some time to think about it, etc. Well, crazy things happened all in about a day's time, and after spending all his time running around talking to people, Rob has committed to be in this woman's lab for the next 2 years, starting the beginning of July.
It's amazing the way the Lord works in our lives. Even a few months ago, a 2nd post-doc looked like not a really good deal for us. Rob went and talked to this lady almost on a whim. It was sort of a fall-back plan for us. But then we sat on the idea for a few days, and Rob came home from work on Monday and said what I'd been thinking during the day, which was, in essence, "This could be what we've been waiting for." This was an unexpected occurrence for both of us, but after that we just went with it.
As Rob has not yet signed any official papers, the job is not "official." But in all other ways, it is (commitments were made, both ways; salary was negotiated; a start date was set). So we're done worrying about the job situation for Fall, and that's nice. We can breathe a little easier and get on with worrying about other things, thank you.
... I'm pretty sure the rest of February is going to have a hard time topping that.
But this is why February is already better, listed in ascending order of importance:
1. I purchased this really cool US puzzle for the kids. I'd been wanting one, and was thinking about making one for my first-ever difficult woodworking project. "Extremely difficult, you say? Ha! Who cares?!" Instead, though, I found this Melissa & Doug one for $10 and couldn't pass it up.
2. Our family got to spend some time with Rob's famous Aunt Lisa. It was hilarious to watch Lisa get adored and tracked down (seriously: TRACKED DOWN) in Middle-of-Nowhere, Ohio. Pictures, and holding kids, and signing magazines. ... Sometimes I remind myself that this is all about scrapbooking and it's too weird. I told Lisa that her life is bizarre and then I thought to myself, again, that I wouldn't want to be a celebrity of any type.
If you are unsure who Lisa is, you probably aren't a scrapbooker. But you can check out her website here. And yes, Lisa truly is as charming and likable in real life as she seems on TV / in her blog.
3. The Ohio tax return is in the bank! It's not much, but we'll take it. By the end of February, the Fed. return should be in there, too, and that's more money to pay off debt faster. I told Rob that I can't think of a single thing I'd like to do with the money that's more important to me than paying off our debt faster. We have committed to being debt-free by 2013, and I think we can do it. We're already making huge strides. Hurrah! (And we are maintaining a decent standard of living at the same time. No, I don't think we deprive ourselves of "good" things. It's a good financial place to be, actually, and I wouldn't mind maintaining this standard of living for the rest of our lives.)
4. Rob has a job for Fall! ... This last week has been craziness. Last Friday he went and talked to someone about a possible 2nd post-doc. She was very interested in Rob. This was meant to be a slow affair. I mean, this isn't until July or August, so there was some time to think about it, etc. Well, crazy things happened all in about a day's time, and after spending all his time running around talking to people, Rob has committed to be in this woman's lab for the next 2 years, starting the beginning of July.
It's amazing the way the Lord works in our lives. Even a few months ago, a 2nd post-doc looked like not a really good deal for us. Rob went and talked to this lady almost on a whim. It was sort of a fall-back plan for us. But then we sat on the idea for a few days, and Rob came home from work on Monday and said what I'd been thinking during the day, which was, in essence, "This could be what we've been waiting for." This was an unexpected occurrence for both of us, but after that we just went with it.
As Rob has not yet signed any official papers, the job is not "official." But in all other ways, it is (commitments were made, both ways; salary was negotiated; a start date was set). So we're done worrying about the job situation for Fall, and that's nice. We can breathe a little easier and get on with worrying about other things, thank you.
... I'm pretty sure the rest of February is going to have a hard time topping that.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
It's Fall! (an update)
Fall Musings
It is officially Fall, though some days it feels like Winter. It was 80 degrees and then, overnight, it was 50 and the temperatures have pretty well stayed there since. And it's raining. A lot. And I'm still mowing my lawn! Two years ago the summer was so dry that the last time we mowed the lawn was in August. It's now October and I'm still mowing my lawn once a week! I'm sure this is a blessing of some kind.
It is also officially Fall because I get lost in the shower. One of my favorite things to do is take a just-a-little-too-hot shower for way too long. I will tell Rob, "I'm just going to take a short shower," and he'll say, "okay," in a way that says he knows I'm lying, and he knows I know I'm lying. It's not like I don't intend to take a short shower, it's just that once I'm in there, it's heaven, and I close my eyes and drift away. Ah, Fall.
It's also Fall because soccer practice last night was unbearably cold! For me, anyways. I'm a wuss. I couldn't feel my toes by the end. I vowed to bring my winter coat to next week's practice.
Rob and the Swine Flu
Yes, we're pretty sure that Rob had the Swine Flu this last weekend. On Wednesday night he came down with a fever of 103 and kept that fever for just over 24 hours. It was very strange to watch, because he was fine when he came home from work, and then, within an hour, his temperature went from normal to 103. That's crazy.
He was shivering violently, even though he was wearing many layers of clothes and had several blankets on top of him. When we went to bed and I prayed with him, our fingers interlaced, I had just opened the prayer when I said, "Ouch!" and quickly pulled my hand away. He was so hot!
On Thursday I watched helplessly as he slept for hours in some kind of distant stupor. He was breathing very shallowly and seemed restless. He woke up and said, "How long has it been?" "Since what?" I asked. "Since you came in last?" "About an hour," I told him. He said, "Oh," and quickly was back asleep. Suddenly he jerked awake and said, "How long has it been?" I laughed. "Since you last asked? Oh, about 2 minutes." He was that out of it all day.
His co-workers and boss were VERY understanding, plus they didn't want to get sick themselves, so they ran an 8-hour experiment for him on Thursday. It was a time-sensitive one, so if it wasn't performed on Thursday, it would have ruined the experiment. Before we knew if they could run it, I told him that he couldn't go in anyways. He was just so sick he would have messed it up anyways, and exposed everyone else to his sickness for nothing.
At the end of the day on Thursday his co-worker called back, and between everyone in the lab, they had things covered for him until Monday. I told her we were very appreciative, and I said it in a tone that said I knew she was the best person in the world. She didn't even say "You're welcome." She said, instead, in a firm tone, "What I'm telling you is that we don't want him to come in until Monday."
Rob returned to work on Monday, but came home early because just walking up the stairs wiped him out. He then took most of Tuesday off, but taught his class Tuesday night. Wednesday was a normal day, and he seems good now.
Tamra and Miciah and the Swine Flu?
Pretty sure Miciah also had the Swine Flu (sorry, H1N1--who cares). She came down with the same symptoms within hours of Rob. She came home from school Wednesday evening and I looked at her, right as she walked in the door, and said, "What's WRONG, Miciah? Are you okay?" She looked like death warmed over. I took her temperature, which was 102, and sent her to bed. She said she was freezing, her neck hurt, and she was really tired. ... She also said that she was in the nurse's office for about half an hour, icing her neck, and that her teacher told her to "take a nap" when she got home. I was a little annoyed that she was obviously so sick and yet I didn't get a phone call. Though if it came on as suddenly as Rob's, maybe earlier she didn't have a fever.
Miciah had a low-grade fever on Thursday, but otherwise felt fine. We kept her home from school on Friday, but she was feeling fine and was spastic by the end of the day. We let her do things on Saturday again.
On Saturday I started coming down with the same symptoms. My neck hurt horribly and I didn't even what to hold my head up. I was achy everywhere, my lymph nodes in my neck were swollen and painful. Not good, not good. I took a nap and 2 hours later felt fine. ... In fact, it was all so short-lived that I wondered momentarily if I had made it up, but you can't "make up" swollen and painful lymph nodes.
So, if that's the Swine Flu, why again are we so freaked out? I've talked to several other people who had the Swine Flu (verified by a doctor, which ours wasn't, because if you think you have the Swine Flu you're NOT SUPPOSED TO GO TO THE DOCTOR unless you're horribly sick and dying), and a lot of theirs were very short-lived, too. Especially with the kids. A fever and cough for 6 hours. Feeling awful for a day. Things like that. ... Who's afraid of the Swine Flu? Not us!
Soccer vs. Piano
Soccer continues to go well enough. Miciah's team had 3 games last week, which just figures that Miciah would pick that week to get sick. She missed 2 of those games (Wed. and Fri. night). Rob took pictures of Miciah during her game 2 Saturdays ago. I'll post those soon.
I'm a little sad that soccer is ending, because I feel like the girls are now starting to learn something! We're finally getting somewhere! Oh well. I suppose that's how it goes.
Miciah has said she doesn't want to play soccer next year. We'll see what she thinks when next year comes. But we'll be happy when soccer ends at the end of October. We'll be starting up Piano Lessons for her come November, since Rob teaching her never really worked out. She's excited.
The Family Schedule
Rob is away from home a lot, but for some reason that isn't bothering me like it used to. I have re-defined what my roles/chores are, what time means, what commitment means, what sacrifice means, what love and happiness means. The tinge of bitterness that was present in my life before is just gone now. This is happiness. This is love. This is commitment. And what more could I ask for?
November is our month for breathing. The soccer schedule is taking its toll. For instance, we haven't yet been on our annual Fall Walk. Why? Because we can't find an open Saturday.
Cincinnati
Rob is now starting to "work" his Cincinnati connections in an effort to stay here in Cincinnati next year. Not just because we don't want to leave (though we truly don't want to leave), but because it seems wise to see what the options are here. So right now we're staying open to a lot of options, and I believe we will still be in Cincinnati this time next year, which is also happiness. We love it here.
And now I am going to go to the Library with the boys. I have a few more funny stories and pictures to post, later.
It is officially Fall, though some days it feels like Winter. It was 80 degrees and then, overnight, it was 50 and the temperatures have pretty well stayed there since. And it's raining. A lot. And I'm still mowing my lawn! Two years ago the summer was so dry that the last time we mowed the lawn was in August. It's now October and I'm still mowing my lawn once a week! I'm sure this is a blessing of some kind.
It is also officially Fall because I get lost in the shower. One of my favorite things to do is take a just-a-little-too-hot shower for way too long. I will tell Rob, "I'm just going to take a short shower," and he'll say, "okay," in a way that says he knows I'm lying, and he knows I know I'm lying. It's not like I don't intend to take a short shower, it's just that once I'm in there, it's heaven, and I close my eyes and drift away. Ah, Fall.
It's also Fall because soccer practice last night was unbearably cold! For me, anyways. I'm a wuss. I couldn't feel my toes by the end. I vowed to bring my winter coat to next week's practice.
Rob and the Swine Flu
Yes, we're pretty sure that Rob had the Swine Flu this last weekend. On Wednesday night he came down with a fever of 103 and kept that fever for just over 24 hours. It was very strange to watch, because he was fine when he came home from work, and then, within an hour, his temperature went from normal to 103. That's crazy.
He was shivering violently, even though he was wearing many layers of clothes and had several blankets on top of him. When we went to bed and I prayed with him, our fingers interlaced, I had just opened the prayer when I said, "Ouch!" and quickly pulled my hand away. He was so hot!
On Thursday I watched helplessly as he slept for hours in some kind of distant stupor. He was breathing very shallowly and seemed restless. He woke up and said, "How long has it been?" "Since what?" I asked. "Since you came in last?" "About an hour," I told him. He said, "Oh," and quickly was back asleep. Suddenly he jerked awake and said, "How long has it been?" I laughed. "Since you last asked? Oh, about 2 minutes." He was that out of it all day.
His co-workers and boss were VERY understanding, plus they didn't want to get sick themselves, so they ran an 8-hour experiment for him on Thursday. It was a time-sensitive one, so if it wasn't performed on Thursday, it would have ruined the experiment. Before we knew if they could run it, I told him that he couldn't go in anyways. He was just so sick he would have messed it up anyways, and exposed everyone else to his sickness for nothing.
At the end of the day on Thursday his co-worker called back, and between everyone in the lab, they had things covered for him until Monday. I told her we were very appreciative, and I said it in a tone that said I knew she was the best person in the world. She didn't even say "You're welcome." She said, instead, in a firm tone, "What I'm telling you is that we don't want him to come in until Monday."
Rob returned to work on Monday, but came home early because just walking up the stairs wiped him out. He then took most of Tuesday off, but taught his class Tuesday night. Wednesday was a normal day, and he seems good now.
Tamra and Miciah and the Swine Flu?
Pretty sure Miciah also had the Swine Flu (sorry, H1N1--who cares). She came down with the same symptoms within hours of Rob. She came home from school Wednesday evening and I looked at her, right as she walked in the door, and said, "What's WRONG, Miciah? Are you okay?" She looked like death warmed over. I took her temperature, which was 102, and sent her to bed. She said she was freezing, her neck hurt, and she was really tired. ... She also said that she was in the nurse's office for about half an hour, icing her neck, and that her teacher told her to "take a nap" when she got home. I was a little annoyed that she was obviously so sick and yet I didn't get a phone call. Though if it came on as suddenly as Rob's, maybe earlier she didn't have a fever.
Miciah had a low-grade fever on Thursday, but otherwise felt fine. We kept her home from school on Friday, but she was feeling fine and was spastic by the end of the day. We let her do things on Saturday again.
On Saturday I started coming down with the same symptoms. My neck hurt horribly and I didn't even what to hold my head up. I was achy everywhere, my lymph nodes in my neck were swollen and painful. Not good, not good. I took a nap and 2 hours later felt fine. ... In fact, it was all so short-lived that I wondered momentarily if I had made it up, but you can't "make up" swollen and painful lymph nodes.
So, if that's the Swine Flu, why again are we so freaked out? I've talked to several other people who had the Swine Flu (verified by a doctor, which ours wasn't, because if you think you have the Swine Flu you're NOT SUPPOSED TO GO TO THE DOCTOR unless you're horribly sick and dying), and a lot of theirs were very short-lived, too. Especially with the kids. A fever and cough for 6 hours. Feeling awful for a day. Things like that. ... Who's afraid of the Swine Flu? Not us!
Soccer vs. Piano
Soccer continues to go well enough. Miciah's team had 3 games last week, which just figures that Miciah would pick that week to get sick. She missed 2 of those games (Wed. and Fri. night). Rob took pictures of Miciah during her game 2 Saturdays ago. I'll post those soon.
I'm a little sad that soccer is ending, because I feel like the girls are now starting to learn something! We're finally getting somewhere! Oh well. I suppose that's how it goes.
Miciah has said she doesn't want to play soccer next year. We'll see what she thinks when next year comes. But we'll be happy when soccer ends at the end of October. We'll be starting up Piano Lessons for her come November, since Rob teaching her never really worked out. She's excited.
The Family Schedule
Rob is away from home a lot, but for some reason that isn't bothering me like it used to. I have re-defined what my roles/chores are, what time means, what commitment means, what sacrifice means, what love and happiness means. The tinge of bitterness that was present in my life before is just gone now. This is happiness. This is love. This is commitment. And what more could I ask for?
November is our month for breathing. The soccer schedule is taking its toll. For instance, we haven't yet been on our annual Fall Walk. Why? Because we can't find an open Saturday.
Cincinnati
Rob is now starting to "work" his Cincinnati connections in an effort to stay here in Cincinnati next year. Not just because we don't want to leave (though we truly don't want to leave), but because it seems wise to see what the options are here. So right now we're staying open to a lot of options, and I believe we will still be in Cincinnati this time next year, which is also happiness. We love it here.
And now I am going to go to the Library with the boys. I have a few more funny stories and pictures to post, later.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Home and everything that means
So the Great Trip of 2009 ended on August 8th. I'll be doing a few more sum-up posts on it (like you care at this point. I know. I write this stuff for me, though). More stories and some numbers. The numbers should be a fun post. I'm excited about that one.
Home
Anyways. Surprising Rob was really fun. He was happy to see us, of course, and I was happy to hand him the kids and walk away.
My mom and dad and Dea stayed with us for another week and a half (my Dad didn't stay as long, actually, but you don't really care that much about the details anyway). It was great to have an excuse to see all our Cincinnati relatives, and there are quite a few. It was also nice to have my mom around to help unpack and make meals and do all the mountainous loads of laundry. My mother is very helpful. She is also nice to talk to.
I'll miss Dea. She is delightful and mellow, and she plays so well with Miciah. By the end, though, they were both ready to be apart again. It took them more than a month to want to spend time apart from each other.
The Kitchen
The kitchen is done!!! It was nice to walk in my door and see our kitchen done, just like we wanted it. I think it's awesome, and Rob did a great job. Thank you to Dustin and Mom and Dad Thacker who helped Rob get it all done during the time I was gone.
Teancom's Haircut
Everyone got a haircut when we got home (during which no one noticed lice. Go figure), but no one's cut was as dramatic as Teancom's. He doesn't like to get his hair washed, which isn't such a big deal until his hair is long and sweaty. Rob had to wash Teancom's hair in the sink on Sunday morning, and that's really when you know it's time to cut his hair.
Soccer
Soccer practices have started, and Miciah played in a pre-season tournament last weekend. They didn't win any games, but we didn't have any subs and it was HOT (oh, soccer in August). It was fun to watch the girls play and see how much they improved just from one day to the next. They're really obedient at this age, even if they can't always remember which direction we're going.
A few soccer comments:
1- Miciah played excellently at keeper. She isn't afraid of the ball and her positioning is great (though the coach kept getting annoyed that she wouldn't stay on the line. I'll have to tell her that I've taught Miciah to not stay on the line. Strategically, it's usually a bad move). She's actually braver in goal than at defense. I asked her why that is and she said, "It's easier when you're goalie." ... She is improving quickly and she's excited to play.
2- Elijah got on the field for his first practice and who knew that the kid can dribble (while running, no less) and shield the ball excellently. I don't think he learned that from anywhere, and I was impressed.
3- I want to kill a kid on Elijah's team who has figured out that if he falls on the ball and pushes the person trying to get the ball, the other person can't get the ball. If he was my kid, or if I was the coach, I would NOT be kind about his behavior.
I am assisting for Miciah's team, and loosely assisting for Eljiah's team. I think Miciah really appreciates me being more involved. I don't know why that's important to her, but I can oblige.
I'll make sure to get some soccer pictures this year.
More Teancom News
Look at this picture and tell me what's different about it:
That's UNDERWEAR!! We kept telling Teancom that as soon as we got home from the trip he was going to get potty trained. So Monday morning we put him in underwear. I kept saying, "You want to go potty on the potty, Teancom?" and he'd respond, "No. On the Potty Train."
Anyways, it's been entirely successful. He hasn't had an accident since, umm, Monday I think. And he hasn't had a peeing accident since last Thursday or so. I knew Teancom was ready, and I thought it would go smoothly and quickly, and that has proven to be the case. Most of the time Teancom is going potty all by himself, too. It's fanTAStic.
We haven't really done nighttime stuff, just cause I don't really care, but he's dry in the mornings about half the time. This has inspired Elijah to want to be dry during the night, too. So we bought plastic sheets (not a bad idea for Cincinnati anyways) and put them on both boys' beds. So far it's gone decently.
Firefox
I took a few more programs off our C drive, and that helped our dying computer a little. But most importantly I installed and am using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. And my computer hasn't frozen since. Hurray! ... I am still thinking about re-formating. And a new computer is still on the horizon, so thank you for everyone who gave their input. But hopefully we can stall a little while longer.
This Fall
Rob is teaching another class at NKU this fall. It's the same class he taught over the summer, but now he's teaching the lecture as well as the lab (he only did the lab before). He's really excited about it, even though it means that he's pretty stressed about everyone that's on his plate. He's preparing two lectures a week. He still has to get stuff done at work and publish a paper by November (that's his shoot-for date). He's applying for jobs all across the country. He's in the bishopric and because of the class he will be missing Tuesday night meetings. He's a father and husband, and he has to find a way to show us that we're still his priority, even though he'll be gone more. It'll make weekends more crucial. And more precious.
I'm already used to the idea of not seeing Rob as much. Not saying I LIKE the idea, but I like that he's getting to do something he loves. That it'll help his career. And the idea of a little more money in our pockets is a plus, too (paying down that debt Dave Ramsey style). All-in-all, it'll be worth it in the long run.
Back to School
School starts on August 31st for Miciah and Sept. 3rd for Elijah. ... Buying school supplies for 2 kids makes me feel very very very sorry for my parents, who had to do it for 8 kids. I spent around $100 on new supplies and hated every minute (and penny) of it! Ugh.
Anyways, Elijah has the same Kindergarten teacher as Miciah did. She was wonderful for Miciah and I think she'll be great for Elijah, too. I already warned her that Elijah and Miciah are VERY different children, so hopefully she remembers that.
Elijah is ready for school. He has just started counting almost as high as he wants. I've heard him count to 70. He also knows all his letters and their sounds, though he's not that great at putting their sounds together to make a word. I have full confidence that he'll learn how to read, and I imagine that one day it'll just CLICK, but I don't think it'll come as effortlessly as it did for Miciah. Which means that he'll actually have something to do in Kindergarten.
Not My Favorite
I have been chastised by more than one person about my obsession with Teancom, and specifically my use of the word "favorite." I will not seek to justify my actions, as much as I'd like to. All I can say is that after a few days I realized that they were right, and I should probably cut it out. Fortunately, Teancom is acquiring attributes that help out my new cause. Namely, he's getting an attitude, he's demanding to do things all by himself (and hence isn't always merely an extra appendage), he's throwing fits, and he can be clingy and grumpy and demanding.
With my mom around, I have also realized that Teancom is often only delightful FOR ME. He refused to let my mother be a part of his life, even after 6 weeks of being together. During the last few days he was beginning to warm up to her. ... Let me say that again:
During THE LAST FEW DAYS he was BEGINNING to warm up to her. ... That's simply ridiculous that it took so long. My mother is adorable and wonderful, and Teancom was nasty to her. What's up with that?
Anyways. The comments have helped me not just change my words but change my attitude. I still cuddle with Teancom the most (because he's the most cuddly), but after 3 weeks of being a single mom I was just as ready to sell him to the gypsies as I was my other children. And that's True (equal) Mother Love.
And there you go. Life is back to normal and posts should be back to the same old boring stuff. Miciah said, "Mom, next summer I don't want to go on a vacation." I told her that would be just fine. Then she added, "But the year after that, we have to go back to Yellowstone."
Home
Anyways. Surprising Rob was really fun. He was happy to see us, of course, and I was happy to hand him the kids and walk away.
My mom and dad and Dea stayed with us for another week and a half (my Dad didn't stay as long, actually, but you don't really care that much about the details anyway). It was great to have an excuse to see all our Cincinnati relatives, and there are quite a few. It was also nice to have my mom around to help unpack and make meals and do all the mountainous loads of laundry. My mother is very helpful. She is also nice to talk to.
I'll miss Dea. She is delightful and mellow, and she plays so well with Miciah. By the end, though, they were both ready to be apart again. It took them more than a month to want to spend time apart from each other.
The Kitchen
The kitchen is done!!! It was nice to walk in my door and see our kitchen done, just like we wanted it. I think it's awesome, and Rob did a great job. Thank you to Dustin and Mom and Dad Thacker who helped Rob get it all done during the time I was gone.
Teancom's HaircutEveryone got a haircut when we got home (during which no one noticed lice. Go figure), but no one's cut was as dramatic as Teancom's. He doesn't like to get his hair washed, which isn't such a big deal until his hair is long and sweaty. Rob had to wash Teancom's hair in the sink on Sunday morning, and that's really when you know it's time to cut his hair.
SoccerSoccer practices have started, and Miciah played in a pre-season tournament last weekend. They didn't win any games, but we didn't have any subs and it was HOT (oh, soccer in August). It was fun to watch the girls play and see how much they improved just from one day to the next. They're really obedient at this age, even if they can't always remember which direction we're going.
A few soccer comments:
1- Miciah played excellently at keeper. She isn't afraid of the ball and her positioning is great (though the coach kept getting annoyed that she wouldn't stay on the line. I'll have to tell her that I've taught Miciah to not stay on the line. Strategically, it's usually a bad move). She's actually braver in goal than at defense. I asked her why that is and she said, "It's easier when you're goalie." ... She is improving quickly and she's excited to play.
2- Elijah got on the field for his first practice and who knew that the kid can dribble (while running, no less) and shield the ball excellently. I don't think he learned that from anywhere, and I was impressed.
3- I want to kill a kid on Elijah's team who has figured out that if he falls on the ball and pushes the person trying to get the ball, the other person can't get the ball. If he was my kid, or if I was the coach, I would NOT be kind about his behavior.
I am assisting for Miciah's team, and loosely assisting for Eljiah's team. I think Miciah really appreciates me being more involved. I don't know why that's important to her, but I can oblige.
I'll make sure to get some soccer pictures this year.
More Teancom News
Look at this picture and tell me what's different about it:
That's UNDERWEAR!! We kept telling Teancom that as soon as we got home from the trip he was going to get potty trained. So Monday morning we put him in underwear. I kept saying, "You want to go potty on the potty, Teancom?" and he'd respond, "No. On the Potty Train."Anyways, it's been entirely successful. He hasn't had an accident since, umm, Monday I think. And he hasn't had a peeing accident since last Thursday or so. I knew Teancom was ready, and I thought it would go smoothly and quickly, and that has proven to be the case. Most of the time Teancom is going potty all by himself, too. It's fanTAStic.
We haven't really done nighttime stuff, just cause I don't really care, but he's dry in the mornings about half the time. This has inspired Elijah to want to be dry during the night, too. So we bought plastic sheets (not a bad idea for Cincinnati anyways) and put them on both boys' beds. So far it's gone decently.
Firefox
I took a few more programs off our C drive, and that helped our dying computer a little. But most importantly I installed and am using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. And my computer hasn't frozen since. Hurray! ... I am still thinking about re-formating. And a new computer is still on the horizon, so thank you for everyone who gave their input. But hopefully we can stall a little while longer.
This Fall
Rob is teaching another class at NKU this fall. It's the same class he taught over the summer, but now he's teaching the lecture as well as the lab (he only did the lab before). He's really excited about it, even though it means that he's pretty stressed about everyone that's on his plate. He's preparing two lectures a week. He still has to get stuff done at work and publish a paper by November (that's his shoot-for date). He's applying for jobs all across the country. He's in the bishopric and because of the class he will be missing Tuesday night meetings. He's a father and husband, and he has to find a way to show us that we're still his priority, even though he'll be gone more. It'll make weekends more crucial. And more precious.
I'm already used to the idea of not seeing Rob as much. Not saying I LIKE the idea, but I like that he's getting to do something he loves. That it'll help his career. And the idea of a little more money in our pockets is a plus, too (paying down that debt Dave Ramsey style). All-in-all, it'll be worth it in the long run.
Back to School
School starts on August 31st for Miciah and Sept. 3rd for Elijah. ... Buying school supplies for 2 kids makes me feel very very very sorry for my parents, who had to do it for 8 kids. I spent around $100 on new supplies and hated every minute (and penny) of it! Ugh.
Anyways, Elijah has the same Kindergarten teacher as Miciah did. She was wonderful for Miciah and I think she'll be great for Elijah, too. I already warned her that Elijah and Miciah are VERY different children, so hopefully she remembers that.
Elijah is ready for school. He has just started counting almost as high as he wants. I've heard him count to 70. He also knows all his letters and their sounds, though he's not that great at putting their sounds together to make a word. I have full confidence that he'll learn how to read, and I imagine that one day it'll just CLICK, but I don't think it'll come as effortlessly as it did for Miciah. Which means that he'll actually have something to do in Kindergarten.
Not My Favorite
I have been chastised by more than one person about my obsession with Teancom, and specifically my use of the word "favorite." I will not seek to justify my actions, as much as I'd like to. All I can say is that after a few days I realized that they were right, and I should probably cut it out. Fortunately, Teancom is acquiring attributes that help out my new cause. Namely, he's getting an attitude, he's demanding to do things all by himself (and hence isn't always merely an extra appendage), he's throwing fits, and he can be clingy and grumpy and demanding.
With my mom around, I have also realized that Teancom is often only delightful FOR ME. He refused to let my mother be a part of his life, even after 6 weeks of being together. During the last few days he was beginning to warm up to her. ... Let me say that again:
During THE LAST FEW DAYS he was BEGINNING to warm up to her. ... That's simply ridiculous that it took so long. My mother is adorable and wonderful, and Teancom was nasty to her. What's up with that?
Anyways. The comments have helped me not just change my words but change my attitude. I still cuddle with Teancom the most (because he's the most cuddly), but after 3 weeks of being a single mom I was just as ready to sell him to the gypsies as I was my other children. And that's True (equal) Mother Love.
And there you go. Life is back to normal and posts should be back to the same old boring stuff. Miciah said, "Mom, next summer I don't want to go on a vacation." I told her that would be just fine. Then she added, "But the year after that, we have to go back to Yellowstone."
Monday, June 1, 2009
Announcements and an update
Rob's Class
Rob just called me after teaching his first class at NKU. So it's official. ... The class is a Basics of Biology lab for non-biology majors. Plus, they're taking this in an accelerated, 5-week format, so probably most of the students wouldn't be there if they didn't have to be (it's a required course). But Rob's excited about teaching it, nonetheless. It's a 2-hour class, 3 times a week, and Rob gets the first 10 minutes or so to introduce material for the day. So it's not lecture-heavy, which is probably good, since he has little time to prep.
We're gearing up for 12 hour days, and lots of weekends worked. ... At least we only have the next 5 weeks to worry about.
Vacation Plans
And then we're going on vacation!! For those of you who don't know and who are interested (which might be a whole 3 of you), this is our rough outline for the trip (note that these days are NOT set in stone, but it should go down pretty close to like this):
July 3rd - leave for Yellowstone
July 5th - 11th - Family Reunion in Yellowstone
July 11th - July 20th (or so) - Time in Utah
July 20th - mid-August some time - Rob leaves us. Time in California
mid-August some time - leave CA for a long, leisurely trip back to Cinci, including a longer stay in St. Louis, where I grew up. Hopefully Rob will re-join us for that part.
August 16th or so - arrive back in Cinci
Yes, we are driving.
Rob will leave us after Utah and fly back home. Then me and the kids will head to CA for some time at the beach, etc. After that my mother will drive back across the country with me and the kids (plus cousin D). This was my MOTHER'S idea, I will have everyone know. She's the crazy one. But it'll be fun. Definitely a summer to remember and never repeat.
I'm excited to show my kids Yellowstone. It's one of my favorite places in the world. Not that I've been a ton of places in the world, but of the places I've been, it's one of my favorites. There's just nowhere else like it. We will be camping in Yellowstone that whole week, so it'll be an adventure.
Graduation - Ceremony and Party
Rob graduates next Friday, June 12th. For those of you who are sad to miss the ceremony (yeah, right), Rob has informed me that you can watch it live on the internet. So here's the link:
The doctorates are awarded in a ceremony that starts at 10:30 am.
For those of you who are happy to skip the ceremony but who would like to help Rob celebrate his achievement, there will be a party that evening at our house. 5:00 pm - midnight (or whenever you'd like to leave). It's a potluck. We'll be providing meat: hamburgers, hotdogs, and brats and mets. And all the fixings for hamburgers. Everything else is potluck. So bring stuff you like to eat. :)
Our Spontaneuos Weekend
We had a fabulous weekend. Rob was pre-feeling the crunch of a busy June, so we did lots of fun stuff this weekend to pre-make up for it. For the second weekend in a row, we camped out in our backyard on Friday night. Had a tin foil dinner. Stayed up late talking by the fire. It was great. We had invited people to join us for a spontaneous camp out in our backyard. No one ended up showing, which is totally fine. It was just fun to be spontaneous.
The next day we took a drive to test the car top carrier that we'll use for our vacation. We borrowed the carrier from someone who hasn't used it for years, so we checked it for water-proof-ness, and then took a drive on the highway to check the straps and stuff. Took the kids with us. Driving to nowhere in particular. We decided to turn around at an exit near Indiana that just happens to be the same place you'd exit to go to a fun park.
So we took the kids to the park. Ended up staying for a few hours. Rob got all spontaneous on us (I LOVE when he's spontaneous, so he tries hard to be spontaneous at least once a year) and we rented a paddle boat. Paddled around this cute little pond. Saw lots of ducks, including about 20 baby ducks, and baby ducks are adorable. All 20 baby ducks were with one female duck. We wondered if she was babysitting.
We ended the weekend by attending a spontaneous pot luck picnic dinner. Met some new friends and hung out with old friends, too.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, full of fun and spontaneity. The spontaneity wasn't on purpose. It just happened that way.
(Yes, I was trying to be funny with the last comments.)
Pictures
Now that that's all out of the way, I'll post some random pictures from May.
We babysat a baby, and Teancom thought the portacrib looked inviting. So for a few nights he went to sleep in it. I thought it was cute, and I had to take a picture:
My lilacs in full bloom, early May:
Rob's little brother got the lead in a play. He'll be portraying Nephi. So, in a late-night moment, Rob made these Nephi faces: (You're welcome, Garrett.)
(And, yes, that's Rob's belt around his head.)
Teancom, all ready to play outside in the rain:
I just loved that it was warm enough out that he could go outside without pants. Him in no pants, a jacket with hood on, and bright green crocs. What's cuter than that? And you can be jealous of my outfit-picking abilities. It's okay.
The kids have been playing outside a lot. We brought out the kiddie pool and by the end of the first day, a week ago, they were both lobsters. Teancom was a red and brown lobster, and Elijah was a red and white monster. The boys have been taking turns wearing the floaty stuff, too:
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Update-ish
I feel like I haven't written a normal update for a while. Probably because I've posted a lot about Miciah's broken arm, and that's overshadowed everything else. Well, here's a normal update.
Teancom
Teancom has cut out nap times a lot of days, but it makes him intolerably grumpy and spastic for a few hours midday. It's, umm, fun. ... It's the first time in his short life that he's caused us any trouble at all. Still, he's his normal cute, squishy, addicting self except for those 2 hours of whininess and attitude.
Elijah
Elijah is addicted to video games. I let him play for a few days, as long as I can stand it, and then I take away privileges for a week or so, because he doesn't do the transition from video games to normal life very well. ... And I'm not sure it's an accomplishment, but Elijah's getting pretty good. He mostly plays on our old school Nintendo system. So he's playing the classic Legend of Zelda and Mega Man III and Mario 3.
Elijah has decided that he's a big boy and can do things like crossing the street by himself. Of course this isn't okay with us. He'll also run off when we're in public. Not that he's running off, he'll just run ahead and then I can't see him any more and he doesn't understand why that's not okay. He'll say, "I know where the car is," and stuff like that. Same with crossing the street: "I looked both ways." Ugh.
He's starting to write things on his own, which is fantastic. It'll look like gibberish until you look close and see that he's written his name or copied "Cheez It" from the box.
Which reminds me about a fun story from a few months ago. We were in the library parking lot, getting ready to leave. I was organizing the books and movies on the passenger seat when I heard Elijah say, "Mom, what does a-d-n-o-h spell?" I thought about it for a second. It doesn't spell anything, of course. But I started looking around, wondering where he saw that. Then I looked over and saw it on the tire cover of the car beside us. It's honda backwards! I don't know why, but Elijah will read and write many things backwards. It's not that he doesn't know which way to read it. He knows. He'll also write some of his letters upside down. And write from the bottom of the page up. ... It all seems very backwards to me, but I'm assuming that it's normal. Or at least normal enough.
Life
The Weekend
Rob's little brother got sealed to his beautiful wife in the Columbus, OH temple this weekend. It was low key and wonderful. I'm all about low key. The kids stayed with the W's, our good friends and the kids' surrogate grandparents.
Rob and I drove straight from Columbus to M's place in Middle of Nowhere, OH. Stayed overnight. Were there Sunday morning to participate in our nephew, P's teacher ordination. It was neat, cause all the siblings were there. It was also nice to see Rob during church hours.
We drove home right after the ordination because my Dad flew into Cincinnati at 1:30. We beat him home by an hour or so, which just gave us time to clean up our travelling stuff.
We chilled with Dad for the evening and part of the next day, and he left in the afternoon for the next leg of his business trip. While he was here we ran the HS track, looked through a spectacular "picture book" of Yellowstone and talked about our trip, had a lovely dinner with R&C. And also, he bought us:
A New Lawn mower
Our old lawn mower died. I wrote about that a while back. We've been using it, half-dead, resistent to spending the money on a new one. We debated what to buy and where and for what price. We finally had decided on buying a refurbished lawnmower for about $100 at a local lawn mower fix it place. We were going to go buy it on Monday. The day before my father took me to Home Depot and helped me pick out a much nicer mower that what we would have purchased.
It's a Honda. I didn't even know Honda MADE lawn mowers.
And on Monday I mowed the grass with our new mower. My favorite parts:
- I can start it myself, which means I can mow the grass during the day and Rob doesn't have to do it all the time. Rob has so little time anyways.
- It's a power mower. Our old one was a manual. I like a lot of the aspects of a manual mower, but it's nice to not have to push with everything I have to get up our steep short hills.
-It's a bagger/mulcher. Our old one was a side shoot. So no more raking for us!! That'll save us a good hour.
Thank you, Dad.
Bad Balance
This has nothing to do with anything, but I thought I'd report on it. I have experienced vertigo off and on for years now. The worst of it was right after Teancom was born, so 2 years ago. Anyways, we finally have good insurance, so I asked my doctor about it. He sent me to an ENT to check it out, cause it sounded like it could be Meniere's Disease. I don't know much about Meniere's, but I dislike the idea of having something with Disease in the title.
There's nothing wrong with my hearing or function, that the ENT could tell (though I found out that my left ear has slightly better hearing than my right). So he sent me for a balance test (turned out to be a $1,000 balance test--don't worry, I didn't pay a penny for it). It was a random test involving following lights with your eyes and strange goggles and blowing warm and cold air into your ear and making you count backwards by 2's from 100.
At one point in the test the test giver (a nurse? doctor?) seemed like the results I reported were slightly abnormal. They blew the warm air into my right ear for a minute and then I felt a little dizzy. Not bad, but a little. Then they did the same thing with my left ear and I wanted to puke or pass out or just go to sleep. It was really bad. They did the same minute-long exposure, one ear at a time, with the cold air, and I hardly reacted to that at all. The test giver made it seem like I should have roughly the same reaction for each ear.
So the ENT called me back a little over a week later and said that my test results were not normal. He didn't say they were horrible, though. He said that they'll see "these kinds of results" from a viral ear infection and those effects can last from 6 months to a year. I think this is unlikely, since the vertigo was the worst over 2 years ago, it started being noticably bad 3 years ago, and I still experience it every few months. He said, alternately, I could just have bad balance. "Some people are born with bad vision, some bad hearing. You could just have bad balance." I think that's the more likely explanation. He didn't diagnose me with Miniere's or anything, and he said he'd like me to repeat the balance test next year.
But, bad balance? I have GREAT balance! I play sports. I rarely get off balance. I can trip but not fall (and that's pretty impressive, I think). ... So I think there must be some other aspect to balance that he's talking about. ... Anyways, that's my balance assessment. Because you obviously cared.
Other than that, we're getting excited for summer. I wish it was already here (Miciah's in school until June 12th). I'm ready for some lazy long days. Not that we'll get many before we head out to Yellowstone, Utah, California, and then all the way back. But we'll take as many lazy summer days as come our way. I'm excited to spend at least one lazy summer day on the beach, and another in a Yellowstone meadow!!
Teancom
Teancom has cut out nap times a lot of days, but it makes him intolerably grumpy and spastic for a few hours midday. It's, umm, fun. ... It's the first time in his short life that he's caused us any trouble at all. Still, he's his normal cute, squishy, addicting self except for those 2 hours of whininess and attitude.
Elijah
Elijah is addicted to video games. I let him play for a few days, as long as I can stand it, and then I take away privileges for a week or so, because he doesn't do the transition from video games to normal life very well. ... And I'm not sure it's an accomplishment, but Elijah's getting pretty good. He mostly plays on our old school Nintendo system. So he's playing the classic Legend of Zelda and Mega Man III and Mario 3.
Elijah has decided that he's a big boy and can do things like crossing the street by himself. Of course this isn't okay with us. He'll also run off when we're in public. Not that he's running off, he'll just run ahead and then I can't see him any more and he doesn't understand why that's not okay. He'll say, "I know where the car is," and stuff like that. Same with crossing the street: "I looked both ways." Ugh.
He's starting to write things on his own, which is fantastic. It'll look like gibberish until you look close and see that he's written his name or copied "Cheez It" from the box.
Which reminds me about a fun story from a few months ago. We were in the library parking lot, getting ready to leave. I was organizing the books and movies on the passenger seat when I heard Elijah say, "Mom, what does a-d-n-o-h spell?" I thought about it for a second. It doesn't spell anything, of course. But I started looking around, wondering where he saw that. Then I looked over and saw it on the tire cover of the car beside us. It's honda backwards! I don't know why, but Elijah will read and write many things backwards. It's not that he doesn't know which way to read it. He knows. He'll also write some of his letters upside down. And write from the bottom of the page up. ... It all seems very backwards to me, but I'm assuming that it's normal. Or at least normal enough.
Life
The Weekend
Rob's little brother got sealed to his beautiful wife in the Columbus, OH temple this weekend. It was low key and wonderful. I'm all about low key. The kids stayed with the W's, our good friends and the kids' surrogate grandparents.Rob and I drove straight from Columbus to M's place in Middle of Nowhere, OH. Stayed overnight. Were there Sunday morning to participate in our nephew, P's teacher ordination. It was neat, cause all the siblings were there. It was also nice to see Rob during church hours.
We drove home right after the ordination because my Dad flew into Cincinnati at 1:30. We beat him home by an hour or so, which just gave us time to clean up our travelling stuff.
We chilled with Dad for the evening and part of the next day, and he left in the afternoon for the next leg of his business trip. While he was here we ran the HS track, looked through a spectacular "picture book" of Yellowstone and talked about our trip, had a lovely dinner with R&C. And also, he bought us:
A New Lawn mower
Our old lawn mower died. I wrote about that a while back. We've been using it, half-dead, resistent to spending the money on a new one. We debated what to buy and where and for what price. We finally had decided on buying a refurbished lawnmower for about $100 at a local lawn mower fix it place. We were going to go buy it on Monday. The day before my father took me to Home Depot and helped me pick out a much nicer mower that what we would have purchased.
It's a Honda. I didn't even know Honda MADE lawn mowers.And on Monday I mowed the grass with our new mower. My favorite parts:
- I can start it myself, which means I can mow the grass during the day and Rob doesn't have to do it all the time. Rob has so little time anyways.
- It's a power mower. Our old one was a manual. I like a lot of the aspects of a manual mower, but it's nice to not have to push with everything I have to get up our steep short hills.
-It's a bagger/mulcher. Our old one was a side shoot. So no more raking for us!! That'll save us a good hour.
Thank you, Dad.
Rob's Big News
Rob has been praying and hoping for someone to give him a teaching opportunity. Well, it's happened! Rob was contacted by NKU (Northern Kentucky University) about teaching a 5-week summer class. Of course Rob said yes. The time is kinda crummy (12 - 2pm, 3 days a week), which means his schedule will be horrible for the month of June. And they don't pay him much, but Rob would have done it for free. He just needs the teaching experience.
He went down to NKU yesterday and got an official badge. I'll have to scan it in, cause he looks just like a middle-aged professor. Balding. A little extra weight. Cute glasses. Aw, the adorable Dr. Thacker.
So, hurray for Rob! And pray for us to survive June!
Bad Balance
This has nothing to do with anything, but I thought I'd report on it. I have experienced vertigo off and on for years now. The worst of it was right after Teancom was born, so 2 years ago. Anyways, we finally have good insurance, so I asked my doctor about it. He sent me to an ENT to check it out, cause it sounded like it could be Meniere's Disease. I don't know much about Meniere's, but I dislike the idea of having something with Disease in the title.
There's nothing wrong with my hearing or function, that the ENT could tell (though I found out that my left ear has slightly better hearing than my right). So he sent me for a balance test (turned out to be a $1,000 balance test--don't worry, I didn't pay a penny for it). It was a random test involving following lights with your eyes and strange goggles and blowing warm and cold air into your ear and making you count backwards by 2's from 100.
At one point in the test the test giver (a nurse? doctor?) seemed like the results I reported were slightly abnormal. They blew the warm air into my right ear for a minute and then I felt a little dizzy. Not bad, but a little. Then they did the same thing with my left ear and I wanted to puke or pass out or just go to sleep. It was really bad. They did the same minute-long exposure, one ear at a time, with the cold air, and I hardly reacted to that at all. The test giver made it seem like I should have roughly the same reaction for each ear.
So the ENT called me back a little over a week later and said that my test results were not normal. He didn't say they were horrible, though. He said that they'll see "these kinds of results" from a viral ear infection and those effects can last from 6 months to a year. I think this is unlikely, since the vertigo was the worst over 2 years ago, it started being noticably bad 3 years ago, and I still experience it every few months. He said, alternately, I could just have bad balance. "Some people are born with bad vision, some bad hearing. You could just have bad balance." I think that's the more likely explanation. He didn't diagnose me with Miniere's or anything, and he said he'd like me to repeat the balance test next year.
But, bad balance? I have GREAT balance! I play sports. I rarely get off balance. I can trip but not fall (and that's pretty impressive, I think). ... So I think there must be some other aspect to balance that he's talking about. ... Anyways, that's my balance assessment. Because you obviously cared.
Other than that, we're getting excited for summer. I wish it was already here (Miciah's in school until June 12th). I'm ready for some lazy long days. Not that we'll get many before we head out to Yellowstone, Utah, California, and then all the way back. But we'll take as many lazy summer days as come our way. I'm excited to spend at least one lazy summer day on the beach, and another in a Yellowstone meadow!!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Another ... I Can't Even Say the Words Outloud (an update)
Well, at least Miciah was in school for 2 days this week before the first 4-Letter-Word Day was upon us. The kids have been enjoying playing Nintendo downstairs (no, not our Wii. The original old-school Nintendo) and I've been enjoying the peace and quiet upstairs. Rob decided to work from home to keep the craziness at bay. Hurray!
To top of the "Tamra is Awesome" feelings, I have been finishing lots of projects lately, and it's been a good feeling. Projects I've left for YEARS. In January I finished a wood working project that's been on my To Do list for 3 years (1 year of thinking about it, 2 to actually start, stop, and then finish making it), finished a book that I've been meaning to finish for the last 2 years (Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Bushman--HIGHLY recommend it, but it's a thick read), made a few paper craft projects that I've been meaning to do for a long time, and completely and totally de-cluttered my entire house, top to bottom.
And then I noticed a small detail I'd previously overlooked: They colored the bottoms of their feet. I could just see, in my mind, marker all over my house, rubbed into the carpet. I imagined myself on hands and knees for hours trying to get that red out of the carpet and being wholly unsuccessful. And suddenly, the fun was over: I sent them all into the bathroom to take a bath. Miciah complained, "You said we could keep it for a while!" "Well, that's before I knew you colored the bottoms of your feet!"
I went to turn the water on, and it wouldn't warm up. Our water heater has been acting up lately, and the pilot light hasn't been staying lit. Rob has been re-lighting it a few times every day, but he hadn't shown me how to light it yet. I put that on my to-do list. Then I got the phone and called Rob at work. He wasn't there. I looked at the water heater, trying to figure out how to light it, but all I could picture was a blown-up water heater. I thought about calling a neighbor to use their tub, but I quickly put that out of my mind. I went back to the bathroom and did what I had to do: I ordered the children to take a cold bath.
Needless to say, they weren't thrilled with that prospect. I filled up the tub with a minimal amount of water and told them they could stay standing, but they HAD to wash off the marker. I left them in the 3 inches of water and went back into the dining room to find marker footprints everywhere. A little flustered, I started Windexing. I surveyed the livingroom as I went past, and there was no marker on the carpet, for which I said a small prayer of gratitude. Then back into the bathroom where there was marker EVERYWHERE. I must have Windexed every surface of that bathroom: the floor, the sink, the toilet seat, the glass shower door.
As I was finishing the Windexing, I could hear Teancom repeatedly saying, "It's cold. It's cold." And then Elijah said, "Mooomm! There's peeee in the bathtub!" "Do I LOOK like I really care?" is what I was thinking, but I said, "Why is there pee in the tub?" "Because Teancom peed in it." I almost rolled my eyes. "So don't drink the water."
Having finished the Windexing, I proceeded to the tub to make sure the kids were adequately scrubbed down. I had told them that they could keep the marker on their faces, but decided against it after wiping marker off too many surfaces. The kids were NOT happy about me scrubbing down their faces with cold water. Teancom doesn't like to get his face washed anyway, so the whole time I was scrubbing his face he was screaming bloody murder and the red marker dripping from his face made it look like he was bleeding bloody murder, too. Good times.
Afterwards I sent them downstairs to watch a movie until Daddy got home. I needed a little sanity time after that! And as they were marching downstairs, I called after them, "Oh. And you can't color with markers for a few weeks." Miciah wasn't happy: "What? Why?!" "Because I said so," I replied, and sat down to read a book.
Pink Eye
On Thursday Miciah's eye looked a little pink, but not a big deal. Cleared up on its own after a few days, and by Sunday she was fine. I called a medical student friend and asked what the tell-tale sign for pink eye is. He said, "If your other kids get it." So wouldn't you know that on Saturday Elijah's eyes started looking pink, too. Still not a big deal and no real goopiness or anything. And then Monday TEANCOM got it. His eyes, though, turned pretty dark red and were very very goopy. So I'm pretty sure, looking back, that they all had pink eye, and I'm very sorry that we attended church on Sunday. However, it appears to have been one of the most mild forms of pink eye I've ever seen. Teancom's case, with as bad as it was, is over now. ... Course, there could be a re-infection in a week or so. That's par for the course at our house.
Teancom has decided he's done with naps, which is usually fine. Sometimes I find him on the floor, blanket over him, and I'll ask if he wants to go lay down. He'll say no and that's that. The other day, though, he was being pretty fussy all day, and then in the evening Rob walked into the kitchen and said, "Doesn't need naps." I looked at him and he motioned for me to come into the livingroom. I found Teancom like this:
His "nap" was short-lived, though. After 10 minutes or so he was back up and running. I guess he just needs cat naps. Like his dad.
The roads are clear now, since the sun came out. So school should be on tomorrow. ... Really, I don't mind Snow Days that much. They can be fun. But last week was a LONG week. I felt better knowing that it wasn't just me that was going crazy. It was everyone I know, kids and parents alike. So, at least if I'm going crazy, I'm in good company! Universal Snow Day-Induced Craziness. I think that's an official medical condition.
I would take more pictures of the snow, since it is beautiful, and another 6 inches of gorgeous powdery snow fell yesterday. But, after a while, it's just snow.
Three Goblins
Monday ended up being one of the most productive days of my life. Mind you, this isn't hard to accomplish. I can make dinner and fold a load of laundry and the day would be tied for second place on my productive days list. (I despise the word 'productive' even. As well as 'effecient' and 'effective.' Why would I want to be those things? I rather value being relaxed and easy-going, and if that means sacrificing productivity, then so be it. Productivity: --shudder--)
Monday started with me cleaning the entire upstairs. I vacuumed every floor, and wiped down every hard wood surface by hand. I did all the laundry. I traced a full-sized Elijah onto posterboard for him to color and then put up in his room. I decided to put up curtains and they were too long, so I spent hours doing a sewing project to make them just the right length and look good, too (for me this was a HUGE accomplishment. Sad, I know, but normally I would just cut them off, leave the ends ravelling, and call it good). I babysat last minute for a friend who needed to go in for an emergency doctor's appointment (no, it's not someone you know. Yes, she's fine). So I even had an extra toddler while I got all this done.
the curtains, all finished!
To top of the "Tamra is Awesome" feelings, I have been finishing lots of projects lately, and it's been a good feeling. Projects I've left for YEARS. In January I finished a wood working project that's been on my To Do list for 3 years (1 year of thinking about it, 2 to actually start, stop, and then finish making it), finished a book that I've been meaning to finish for the last 2 years (Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Bushman--HIGHLY recommend it, but it's a thick read), made a few paper craft projects that I've been meaning to do for a long time, and completely and totally de-cluttered my entire house, top to bottom.
So I was standing downstairs, folding the last load of laundry and feeling pretty good about myself as Miciah and Elijah were upstairs coloring the Elijah poster so we could post it in his room. Mid-self-congratulatory thought, Miciah came downstairs yelling, "Elijah colored his face and hands!" Well, that was good, I thought, since he'd been avoiding those areas on his poster. I said, "That's good!" Miciah just stared at me. She blinked. "No. I mean, Elijah ACTUALLY COLORED his face and hands. With marker!"
Oh.
I thought about that for a minute. So what if he colored his face and hands? Was it hurting anyone? No. I chuckled to myself, thinking about how funny kids are, and said, "It's alright, Miciah." She was not expecting that response, and she jumped on her opportunity. "Can I do it, too?" "Sure! Just don't color on your clothes." What a relaxed, fun mother I was right then! I kept folding laundry.
About 10 minutes later Teancom came downstairs, his face, hands and feet COVERED in red marker. Totally cute, and totally funny. I went upstairs to see all of them covered in their favorite colors: Teancom, as I just said, was red; Miciah was blue; and Elijah was green. They were all goblins, they said. Elijah was the Green Goblin (a familiar character in our family). Teancom ran around the living room saying, "I red gobwin!" and shooting me with his pretend weapon that shoots out of his hand. I got out the camera and took pictures of the 3 of them. I was even composed enough to take a video.
And then I noticed a small detail I'd previously overlooked: They colored the bottoms of their feet. I could just see, in my mind, marker all over my house, rubbed into the carpet. I imagined myself on hands and knees for hours trying to get that red out of the carpet and being wholly unsuccessful. And suddenly, the fun was over: I sent them all into the bathroom to take a bath. Miciah complained, "You said we could keep it for a while!" "Well, that's before I knew you colored the bottoms of your feet!"I went to turn the water on, and it wouldn't warm up. Our water heater has been acting up lately, and the pilot light hasn't been staying lit. Rob has been re-lighting it a few times every day, but he hadn't shown me how to light it yet. I put that on my to-do list. Then I got the phone and called Rob at work. He wasn't there. I looked at the water heater, trying to figure out how to light it, but all I could picture was a blown-up water heater. I thought about calling a neighbor to use their tub, but I quickly put that out of my mind. I went back to the bathroom and did what I had to do: I ordered the children to take a cold bath.
Needless to say, they weren't thrilled with that prospect. I filled up the tub with a minimal amount of water and told them they could stay standing, but they HAD to wash off the marker. I left them in the 3 inches of water and went back into the dining room to find marker footprints everywhere. A little flustered, I started Windexing. I surveyed the livingroom as I went past, and there was no marker on the carpet, for which I said a small prayer of gratitude. Then back into the bathroom where there was marker EVERYWHERE. I must have Windexed every surface of that bathroom: the floor, the sink, the toilet seat, the glass shower door.
As I was finishing the Windexing, I could hear Teancom repeatedly saying, "It's cold. It's cold." And then Elijah said, "Mooomm! There's peeee in the bathtub!" "Do I LOOK like I really care?" is what I was thinking, but I said, "Why is there pee in the tub?" "Because Teancom peed in it." I almost rolled my eyes. "So don't drink the water."
Having finished the Windexing, I proceeded to the tub to make sure the kids were adequately scrubbed down. I had told them that they could keep the marker on their faces, but decided against it after wiping marker off too many surfaces. The kids were NOT happy about me scrubbing down their faces with cold water. Teancom doesn't like to get his face washed anyway, so the whole time I was scrubbing his face he was screaming bloody murder and the red marker dripping from his face made it look like he was bleeding bloody murder, too. Good times.
Afterwards I sent them downstairs to watch a movie until Daddy got home. I needed a little sanity time after that! And as they were marching downstairs, I called after them, "Oh. And you can't color with markers for a few weeks." Miciah wasn't happy: "What? Why?!" "Because I said so," I replied, and sat down to read a book.
Pink Eye
On Thursday Miciah's eye looked a little pink, but not a big deal. Cleared up on its own after a few days, and by Sunday she was fine. I called a medical student friend and asked what the tell-tale sign for pink eye is. He said, "If your other kids get it." So wouldn't you know that on Saturday Elijah's eyes started looking pink, too. Still not a big deal and no real goopiness or anything. And then Monday TEANCOM got it. His eyes, though, turned pretty dark red and were very very goopy. So I'm pretty sure, looking back, that they all had pink eye, and I'm very sorry that we attended church on Sunday. However, it appears to have been one of the most mild forms of pink eye I've ever seen. Teancom's case, with as bad as it was, is over now. ... Course, there could be a re-infection in a week or so. That's par for the course at our house.
Teancom's Naps
Teancom has decided he's done with naps, which is usually fine. Sometimes I find him on the floor, blanket over him, and I'll ask if he wants to go lay down. He'll say no and that's that. The other day, though, he was being pretty fussy all day, and then in the evening Rob walked into the kitchen and said, "Doesn't need naps." I looked at him and he motioned for me to come into the livingroom. I found Teancom like this:
His "nap" was short-lived, though. After 10 minutes or so he was back up and running. I guess he just needs cat naps. Like his dad. Rob's Birthday Coat
Rob's parents came down for his birthday and took us all to Trader's World. Fun place. If you've never been there, you might want to try it out. It's a huge flea market, and it's totally random stuff. We found matching shelf/peg board things for our front entryway (I say entryway, but it's really just the livingroom wall right by the front door). We've been searching for just this sort of thing for a while now, we had the money for it, they were really inexpensive, and I really liked the woodwork. I'll take a picture of them, so you know what I'm talking about. I thikn they look really nice, and I would definitely go back and buy this guy's stuff again. I like the style. (They also had other cool wood stuff, like a kids' play kitchen set for about $50, and a rocking horse for $30.)
the little one is in our bedroom. I've wanted a little shelf there for almost 2 years. This one works perfectly.
One thing we did not find there, though, was a new coat for Rob. Rob decided that for his b-day he wanted a nice coat. Like mine. Not that I'm bragging about my coat, but I love my coat. Love, love, love. It's 5 years old now and it's not very stylish, but it keeps me warm. So Rob's parents took the kids home with them and we went searching around town for a coat. Burlington Coat Factory: No acceptable coat. Bass Pro Shop: No acceptable coat. Kohl's: No acceptable coat. We didn't even try after that. Figured if we couldn't find a coat to Rob's liking at Burlington, our chances of finding it anywhere else were slim.
So we looked on-line after we got home. Still, Rob wasn't finding a coat he liked. I finally looked at him and said, "You know, the coat you want: someone has to SELL it." Finally he found the coat he wanted, and he got it in the mail on Friday. He likes it. It keeps him warm. Happiness. (In the picture of the wooden peg shelf things, the green coat hanging up is his new coat. Not that you can see it well in that picture, but whatever.)
He also got a birthday goodie box from his Aunt Lisa. She sent candy and a movie (which we haven't watched yet. I'm slow on movie-watching).
Rob's parents got him 2 new games and 2 new movies.
He's 30 this year. I threw him the big 3-0 party last year and told him it would be his 29th birthday this year. Really, I won't insist people say he's 29 all year, but the idea was a good one, apparently, because it made this year feel really nice. All the big hullabaloo stuff surrounding the party was over with, and we got to spend a quiet birthday with just his parents around our dinner table. Best of both worlds, I think.
Taxes
Finished our taxes already. Nothing special about that, it's just nice to be done with them! Plus, we got a good chunk of money back from the feds, so we'll be able to buy that new water heater. And fix our van. And still save some.
Spiritual Gifts
I have to give a talk on Sunday about Spiritual Gifts. If anyone has any insights for me, let me know!
MarioKart Wii
We've been having fun with MarioKart Wii lately. Rob has been impressed with my driving SKILLS. I'm not really a gamer, but MarioKart is My Game. SNES was my system, and MarioKart was my game. I played it for countless hours. MarioKart Wii is different, of course, but the same sort of idea. I'm having a good time with it.
And can I just say that I love that the Wii keeps track of your "accomplishments" for the day, and the "accomplishments" list is exclusively how long you've played? This cracks me up every time. I always check out how long I've played, and I think this is a useful feature, but not in an accomplishments sort of way. In a making sure I don't play too much sort of way. I may not like the word 'productivity', but I know what NON-productivity is, and video games pretty much defines it (sorry, my gaming friends, but you know it's true, too). Accomplishments, indeed.
Rob's Career
Rob is developing relationships with colleges in Cincinnati. He made contact with a wonderful woman at Mount St. Joseph's (if you aren't familiar with this college, don't worry, you're not the only one). They spent a lovely few hours talking about what life was like as a professor there. It was a great meeting, and it gave Rob all the information he needed about what it would be like to be a professor at a teaching-focused college. Rob is more excited than ever about his future, and that's a WONDERFUL change for us.
He also has put in an application to teach at least a night class at a local college. He was encouraged to put in more applications to more places. ... It seems it might be likely that we could stay in Cincinnati long-term. This is weird to think about, since we came here thinking we're be here and then moving on in 4 years. We're on year 5 and we wouldn't mind at ALL spending many more years here. Cincinnati is a lovely place for us.
And that's life from here.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
The Drive to Dayton - Rob's Career Path Explored
In my last update I promised to talk about our somewhat monumental drive up to Dayton and back ( *giggle* "somewhat monumental"). So here goes:
The set-up: Rob has been struggling with his work. A combination of work and church stresses have helped Rob start re-thinking what his priorities are and if he's "cut out" to be a scientist. If you know Rob, right now you're thinking, "What are you TALKING ABOUT, he's not CUT OUT to be a scientist? The man got his PhD!" I thought the same thing. His lack in self confidence was strange to me, especially since I think the world of him. But I couldn't just hand him my view of him to make it all better.
The drive: The drive forced us to have several daylight hours of uninterupted talk time, something of a luxury when you have 3 kids. I turned to Rob and said, "Tell me something that's NOT WORK." (An aside: "Tell me something" is my oft-asked phrase throughout our marriage. It means much more than it appears to. I also wanted to explain because "Tell me something that's not work" isn't a very well-structured sentence. Okay, moving on.)
And Rob went into how he was feeling inadequate (I knew that) and was thinking of changing career paths from the one he'd been envisioning for a while (I didn't know that). Since he'd started his PhD, he'd imagined himself doing a post doc and then working in industry. I'd asked him repeatedly if he wanted to do academics and he never has wanted the stress and lifestyle of having his own lab, so it was industry or nothing, it seemed. These have always been the only 2 options people have really talked about.
So Rob started talking about how he's now realizing how lazy he really is ("RIIIIGHT" is the correct response to that, of course) and how he's just not the type to succeed in blah blah blah. I told him that it is not a failure to say that you don't want the stress that a certain career brings; it's just knowing yourself (again, this seems obvious to me, but when you're in self-esteem-drain-land, aparently you can't see obvious things). He started coming back around to academics, but not the academics that everyone has presented him with. What about being a professor with an emphasis in teaching (instead of emphasis on lab with teaching on the side), perhaps with a lab on the side?
Well, I thought that sounded FANTASIC. For years I've been trying to convince Rob that he wants to go into academics because he wants to teach. He wasn't listening to me, though, so I stopped saying it eventually, especially since he appeared pretty settled on industry. So him coming back to teaching seemed (and seems) a very natural thing, and as a wife I felt like saying, "I told you so. You KNOW I'm always right about these things." Of course, I didn't say it (too many times) and let him instead think the whole teaching thing was completely (not) his idea. Because I'm convinced that's what good wives do.
The aftermath: Rob and I both felt really good about this new direction and I told him it will probably help him feel a lot better about his post doc. Stressful environment or not, you can survive almost anything for a year and a half if you feel there's an end (instead of feeling like the post doc was the start of the rest of his stressful career).
True to form, Rob came home a few days later saying, "Everyone that I've told about wanting to be a professor has tried to talk me out of it." I asked him who he'd talked to. A co-worker. Who else? No one. "Everyone" = 1 Co-Worker. And she didn't even try to "talk him out of it", she recognized he was thinking of other options and gave him a few more options to consider. ... I was less than nice when Rob and I sat down for our next discussion about his career path. I told him that he was NOT to come home and tell me that there are people who disagree with his choice. He should already be well-aware that people will disagree. I'd already TOLD him that there is a huge group of people who will try to spit on his future, and he should generally ignore them. At any rate, if he wasn't going to ignore them, I was not going to be sympathetic. Because I'm convinced this type of behavior is also what good wives do.
Rob shaped up and stopped coming home telling me about nay-sayers. (If you'd like to nay-say, too, you're welcome to. We welcome feedback. Really, we do. Just be ready for us (meaning me) to tell you where to stick it.)
Rob also worries a little about making less money as a professor focused on teaching. This is not my concern, but it is valid. We do have a family to take care of. And the money we're making now, while livable, kinda stinks. So he looked up a site that gives what professors at different levels average at different universities. Very useful.
Here's my input on making less money. The perks we'll get from him having a more flexible schedule and not being so stressed out (and will our kids get free/reduced tuition when they want to go to college?! That's a HUGE perk) WAY make up for the lower income. For instance, let's make-believe a future time: our kids are in school all day and Rob doesn't have to go into school until Thursdays at 2:30 p.m. I dub Thursdays "Run Around the House Naked Day." What's Run Around the House Naked Day worth? I say $10,000 a year. Add to that all the other perks I can think of, and I'm thinking it all evens out one way or another.
And that's how our Drive to Dayton went.
The set-up: Rob has been struggling with his work. A combination of work and church stresses have helped Rob start re-thinking what his priorities are and if he's "cut out" to be a scientist. If you know Rob, right now you're thinking, "What are you TALKING ABOUT, he's not CUT OUT to be a scientist? The man got his PhD!" I thought the same thing. His lack in self confidence was strange to me, especially since I think the world of him. But I couldn't just hand him my view of him to make it all better.
The drive: The drive forced us to have several daylight hours of uninterupted talk time, something of a luxury when you have 3 kids. I turned to Rob and said, "Tell me something that's NOT WORK." (An aside: "Tell me something" is my oft-asked phrase throughout our marriage. It means much more than it appears to. I also wanted to explain because "Tell me something that's not work" isn't a very well-structured sentence. Okay, moving on.)
And Rob went into how he was feeling inadequate (I knew that) and was thinking of changing career paths from the one he'd been envisioning for a while (I didn't know that). Since he'd started his PhD, he'd imagined himself doing a post doc and then working in industry. I'd asked him repeatedly if he wanted to do academics and he never has wanted the stress and lifestyle of having his own lab, so it was industry or nothing, it seemed. These have always been the only 2 options people have really talked about.
So Rob started talking about how he's now realizing how lazy he really is ("RIIIIGHT" is the correct response to that, of course) and how he's just not the type to succeed in blah blah blah. I told him that it is not a failure to say that you don't want the stress that a certain career brings; it's just knowing yourself (again, this seems obvious to me, but when you're in self-esteem-drain-land, aparently you can't see obvious things). He started coming back around to academics, but not the academics that everyone has presented him with. What about being a professor with an emphasis in teaching (instead of emphasis on lab with teaching on the side), perhaps with a lab on the side?
Well, I thought that sounded FANTASIC. For years I've been trying to convince Rob that he wants to go into academics because he wants to teach. He wasn't listening to me, though, so I stopped saying it eventually, especially since he appeared pretty settled on industry. So him coming back to teaching seemed (and seems) a very natural thing, and as a wife I felt like saying, "I told you so. You KNOW I'm always right about these things." Of course, I didn't say it (too many times) and let him instead think the whole teaching thing was completely (not) his idea. Because I'm convinced that's what good wives do.
The aftermath: Rob and I both felt really good about this new direction and I told him it will probably help him feel a lot better about his post doc. Stressful environment or not, you can survive almost anything for a year and a half if you feel there's an end (instead of feeling like the post doc was the start of the rest of his stressful career).
True to form, Rob came home a few days later saying, "Everyone that I've told about wanting to be a professor has tried to talk me out of it." I asked him who he'd talked to. A co-worker. Who else? No one. "Everyone" = 1 Co-Worker. And she didn't even try to "talk him out of it", she recognized he was thinking of other options and gave him a few more options to consider. ... I was less than nice when Rob and I sat down for our next discussion about his career path. I told him that he was NOT to come home and tell me that there are people who disagree with his choice. He should already be well-aware that people will disagree. I'd already TOLD him that there is a huge group of people who will try to spit on his future, and he should generally ignore them. At any rate, if he wasn't going to ignore them, I was not going to be sympathetic. Because I'm convinced this type of behavior is also what good wives do.
Rob shaped up and stopped coming home telling me about nay-sayers. (If you'd like to nay-say, too, you're welcome to. We welcome feedback. Really, we do. Just be ready for us (meaning me) to tell you where to stick it.)
Rob also worries a little about making less money as a professor focused on teaching. This is not my concern, but it is valid. We do have a family to take care of. And the money we're making now, while livable, kinda stinks. So he looked up a site that gives what professors at different levels average at different universities. Very useful.
Here's my input on making less money. The perks we'll get from him having a more flexible schedule and not being so stressed out (and will our kids get free/reduced tuition when they want to go to college?! That's a HUGE perk) WAY make up for the lower income. For instance, let's make-believe a future time: our kids are in school all day and Rob doesn't have to go into school until Thursdays at 2:30 p.m. I dub Thursdays "Run Around the House Naked Day." What's Run Around the House Naked Day worth? I say $10,000 a year. Add to that all the other perks I can think of, and I'm thinking it all evens out one way or another.
And that's how our Drive to Dayton went.
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